Haul bag rigging 101
Thanks to big wall ace Quinn Hatfield @sprint_chef for the “connect two bags with quick links” tip near the bottom of this page.
A few words on hauling, from big wall expert Andy Kirkpatrick:
“Hauling is potentially one of the most dangerous aspects of big wall climbing. This translates to ultra-caution in all parts of your hauling system and interaction with bags, haul lines, docking cords, and pulleys. If you rush and make a mistake, drop a load or have it shift where it's not wanted, you could easily kill someone or yourself. I try and teach climbers to view their bags as dangerous creatures, like a great white shark, rhino, or raptor that is in their charge. The ability to keep them calm and under your control comes down to paranoia, foresight, and heavy respect for the damage they can do.”
There are MANY different ways to set up your bags for hauling. While some traditional methods have served big wall climbers fairly well for a long time, there are some more modern approaches that may make your life a lot easier. Try these different systems, and see what works well for you!
A more traditional / old school hauling setup looks something like this:
Cut off plastic bottle as a knot protector (lifted up here for the photo, in practice you slide the bottle down over the knot)
No swivel
End of haul rope tied directly to master hauling carabiner
Carabiner connects the short strap to the master point carabiner
Bag clipped to anchor with a sewn pocket daisy chain
old school haul setup
Let's look at a few potential issues with this set up.
Nothing really wrong with the plastic bottle. (Sidenote, big wall expert Andy Kirkpatrick suggests using an oil funnel from a car parts store instead of a plastic bottle. The oil funnel has a long, tapered neck that can allow it to slide past obstructions more easily. I haven't tried it but it sounds sensible.)
No swivel. A swivel is somewhat optional and costs a bit, but can definitely save your bags from twisting your rope.
End of rope tied directly to master carabiner. Again, nothing really wrong with this, but if you need to lower out your bags you're going to need an entirely separate rope to do so.
That red carabiner connecting the short haul bag strap to the master carabiner? That can be a BIG hassle with a heavy bag when the master haul carabiner is loaded, because you have to pretty much lift the weight of the bag and have one hand free every time you want to clip or unclip. There are much better ways to attach these two straps.
Finally, that evil sewn pocket daisy chain! That sucker can be very difficult to unclip, especially if the pitch above is traversing. Much better practice is to use a releasable docking cord, more on that below.
Here’s a more modern way to rig your haul bag.
A progress capture pulley such as a Petzl Traxion is attached to the haul bag, not a bight knot. Yes, you haul directly from the pulley. No, it doesn't damage the rope. The pulley gives you a lot more flexibility. You can lift up on the bags with a 2:1 mechanical advantage to transfer them from one anchor point to another, you can use the extra haul rope as a lower out line, you can do a “far end haul” with a 2:1 mechanical advantage if needed, and you don’t need the inverted plastic bottle as a knot protector, because there’s no knot. This is a good place for a triple action carabiner. Yes, the Traxion is expensive.
A swivel goes between the Traxion pulley and the master carabiner. Way less twisting of your rope.
A cam strap connect the long strap and the short straps. This means you never have to lift the full weight of the bags to clip and unclip the carabiner. Clove hitch the cam strap (a 3 footer /1 meter) to the haul point carabiner so you can’t drop the strap. Good place for a triple action (or here, a Magnetron) HMS carabiner. (Side note on the cam strap: After I took this photo, I found out that skotswallgear now makes a very nice 3 foot long cam strap for exactly this purpose, and that's what I'd recommend. Check it out here, scroll to the bottom of his store to see it.
A docking cord attaches the bag to the anchor, not a daisy chain. The docking cord is typically a doubled length of 7 or 8mm cord (about 15 feet / 5 meters) that's attached to the long strap of your bag. With this you tie some sort of releasable hitch onto the anchor, and that holds the weight of your bag. You can release the bag when this hitch is fully loaded, which is a HUGE improvement over hanging your bag from a sling or daisy chain. (Attaching the docking cord to the long strap rather than the hauling carabiner means that when the bag is docked, everything else is slack).
Here's one more tip on where to tie your docking cord (which I unfortunately learned after I shot all these photos). Most haul bags have some sturdy sewn tabs around the opening. If your tie your docking cord to one of these tabs, and around one of the straps, this lets you dock the bag higher up on the anchor, which often makes accessing the bag more convenient.
Tip: Clip a bight knot to back up the Traxion ABOVE the swivel
Just below the Traxion, tie a backup knot (here a butterfly) and clip it with a locker to the carabiner attached to the Traxion. This backs up the Traxion, and gives you a knot you can use to lower out. You can loosely stack all the rest of the unused rope in the top of the bag, or let it hang free.
If the Traxion cam were to open up on some rock nubbin when you're hauling, this backup knot prevents you from losing your haul bag.
Note: It's important to clip this bight knot ABOVE the swivel, and not below it. If you clip the bight anywhere below the swivel, there's a good chance when your bag twists, all of your extra haul rope is going to get twisted around the bag also, no bueno.
Check out the photo below of the correct (left) and incorrect way (right) to do this.
What about two bags?
There are LOADS of different ways to rig two haul bags. The basic concepts (that’ve worked for me) are:
Most folks like the bags side-by-side, but some prefer a smaller bag hanging below the primary bag. Try both and see what works for you.
It’s good to be able to spread the bags laterally if you need to wrestle them around.
You don't want them hanging too far down, so you have to reach uncomfortably low from the anchor. (This is not so important during the day at intermediate anchors, more so at the bivy.)
All connection points need to be unquestionably strong.
You need to able to unclip and separate the bags from one another if needed.
A docking cord connects the bags to the anchor. You can have a separate docking cord on each bag (as we do here) or go with with one single docking cord from the master haul carabiner.
Here’s one way to set it up. From the top down:
Haul rope running through Traxion progress capture pulley, backup knot below traxion, knot clipped with a locker above the swivel
Triple action locking carabiner
Swivel
2 pairs of quick links in swivel. The quick links are unquestionably strong, and give a nice lateral spread to each bag at the belay. (Thanks to Quinn Hatfield for this quicklinks tip.)
HMS locking carabiner attached to long strap on each bag. (Feel free to tape the gates closed if you want to be 110% sure they’ll never open.)
Docking cord attached with quicklink to each bag
On left bag, a 3 foot long camstrap (red)
Here's a close-up:
Here's a fancier way to set it up, from big wall expert Skot’s Wall Gear. Here, Skot is using a pair of gold rappel rings along with a combination swivel and locking carabiner (appears to be the Director Swivel Boss) from DMM. This makes a more compact set up, with zero chance cross loading the rings.
photo: @skotfromthedock, https://www.instagram.com/p/C2nmw-By0-3/
Other hardware for haulbag rigging . . .
There are cool swivels that allows you to open one side. This creates some interesting options; for example you could maybe cut up a PAS tether to get small sewn loops of Dyneema or maybe a pair of quickdraw dogbones, and use these instead of the quick links. I haven’t tried these but looks like they could work.
Here’s a photo: the Petzl Micro swivel and DMM Focus swivel.
Petzl makes a nifty product called the Ring Open. This is a rigging ring that you can open (with a tiny Allen screw, I think), letting you attach a fixed loop. I don't have one of these, but it could be a cool option for setting up your haul bag system.
Like I said at the start, there are many, many different ways to do this. Start with the basic principles, and find a system that works for you.
Director Swivel Boss from DMM. This is the carabiner shown Skot’s photo just above. With this, you can use inexpensive rappel rings instead of the more expensive Petzl Ring Open.
The far end haul
Having a Traxion on the load also lets you set up what’s called a “far end haul”, which at first seems like some sort of sorcery. Here's a detailed article and a couple of how to videos on this technique.
